RIAs now hold nearly $4 trillion in ETF assets, representing 38.5% of total U.S. ETF assets, according to ISS Market Intelligence (2025). That number keeps climbing.
But the growth story has a harder edge for ETF wholesalers: the RIA market is maturing, and the next dollar of ETF revenue is more likely to come from displacing a competitor than from a brand new allocation.
Switch business, winning a sleeve an RIA already has allocated elsewhere, is where ETF distribution is heading. The teams winning it are using 13F data to find the right targets, build the right case, and show up to the right conversation at the right time.
In this article, we cover what 13F data actually reveals about RIA holdings, four switch plays your team can run today, where most distribution teams get stuck, and how Dakota Marketplace connects the holdings data to the contacts you need to act on it.
The Switch Opportunity Is Real, and It's Growing
The RIA market is maturing, and net new ETF adoption is starting to slow. A more competitive, selective phase is setting in — and weaker or less differentiated products are beginning to fall away.
After reaching a peak of 1,213 unique active ETF strategies in RIA portfolios in late 2024, the number stabilized at roughly 1,180 to 1,200 throughout 2025 (InvestmentNews, April 2026). Advisors are narrowing down to preferred strategies and providers. If your fund is not in that preferred set, winning entry means moving someone else out.
What 13F Data Actually Tells You
Every institution managing $100 million or more in U.S. securities must file a 13F quarterly, disclosing every long position 45 days after each quarter ends. For an ETF wholesaler, that means you can see, across thousands of RIAs, exactly which ETF tickers they hold, in what dollar amounts, and how those positions have changed quarter over quarter.
That is the foundation of a switch prospecting strategy. For this post, the focus is the switch play specifically:
- Which RIAs hold a competitor's fund in your category
- At what position size, telling you whether this is a core sleeve or a satellite allocation
- Whether the position is growing, stable, or being trimmed
- Which RIAs hold no ETF exposure in your category at all — meaning the switch conversation is actually a new allocation conversation
Each of these signals requires a different approach. The RIA reducing a competitor's position is a very different call than the RIA who has never held anything in your category. 13F data lets your team sort those conversations before picking up the phone.
Dakota Marketplace connects 13F holdings data to confirmed RIA contacts so your team spends less time researching and more time in front of the right people. Talk to an expert.
Four Switch Plays That Use 13F Data
1. The Position Reduction Play
A competitor's fund that showed up at $3 million in an RIA's Q3 filing comes in at $1.8 million in Q4. That RIA is moving away from that fund. Your team now knows to call before they reallocate elsewhere. This is time-sensitive intelligence. Without 13F data, you find out about it when the advisor decides to call you — or not at all.
2. The Same-Category Displacement Play
An RIA holds $5 million of a competing large cap blend ETF. Your fund is in the same category with a lower expense ratio and a differentiated methodology. The 13F tells you the position size and the vehicle. You go into that conversation knowing exactly what you are asking them to swap and why the math works in their favor.
3. The Concentration Play
An RIA holds three ETFs from the same issuer across multiple sleeves. That is a concentration risk conversation waiting to happen — and an opening. 13F data shows you where single-issuer concentration exists in an advisor's book. Diversification of manager relationships is a legitimate value proposition, and the data tells you exactly where to make it.
4. The Platform Expansion Play
Many RIAs hold a fund on one custodian platform but not another, or hold a related strategy but not the specific vehicle you are wholesaling. 13F data shows the full position picture, not just the accounts your internal CRM already knows about.
How Dakota Marketplace Turns 13F Data Into a Working Prospect List
The problem is not that wholesalers do not understand the value of 13F data. Most do. The problem is the gap between the raw SEC filing and a working prospect list.
A raw 13F tells you what an institution owned. It does not tell you who to call, what their role is, what mandate they are operating under, or how to reach them. An RIA filing a 13F might have one investment decision-maker or twelve. The structural problems with raw 13F data run deeper than most teams realize. Most ETF distribution teams stall here… spending hours cross-referencing CRM records, searching LinkedIn, and trying to map a ticker to a human being. The intelligence is real. The workflow breaks down before it gets to a rep.
Dakota Marketplace ingests every 13F filing and runs it through a seven-step enrichment process before it reaches your team. Every position is tagged by asset class, sub-asset class, strategy, geography, and vehicle type. Every filing is matched to a known allocator profile. And every account is connected to confirmed, active contacts: names, roles, and outreach information.
For ETF wholesalers, that means the data does not stop at the position. It connects directly to the person at the RIA who owns that allocation decision. You can filter by ETF holdings, by position size, by filing period, and by RIA AUM… and surface a list of investment firms holding a competitor's fund in your category, along with the contact you need to call.
That is the difference between calling into the dark and calling with a reason. Knowing that a prospect holds $4 million of a competing fund, that the position dropped last quarter, and that you have a lower-cost vehicle in the same category is not a lucky discovery. It is a prepared position. That preparation is what Dakota's 13F data makes possible for teams building a broader RIA distribution strategy.
Book a demo of Dakota Marketplace to see how ETF distribution teams use 13F data to build contact-ready switch prospect lists.
